And so it begins. The confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett are underway, and while the proceedings have been quite civil so far, they have been predictably partisan. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (of confirmation “character” witness Christine Blasey Ford fame) came out of her corner swinging, nothing that Ruth Bader Ginsburg “left big shoes to fill.” She went on to describe in lofty terms the strides Ginsburg made in breaking the glass ceiling and advancing the cause of women’s rights.
The problem inherent in this argument is the same one that tainted the demands of Democrats that Ginsburg’s alleged “dying wish” be honored. That wish, which Democrats promptly modified to suit their whims, was that a president other than Donald Trump nominate her successor. (RELATED: Within hours of news of Ginsburg’s death, media gets busy politicizing it)
But as LU argued at the time, a dying justice’s wishes are no more relevant to the matter of filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court than are the prejudices of the party that suggest purely out of expedience that final wishes are — well … final.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Here’s hoping, probably in vain, that as the hearings commence, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate after them stick to the issue of Barrett’s judicial record and it qualifies her to become a justice. Let’s hope that the shoe size of the person she replaces is accepted as beside the point.
